Teesside University - Digital Life Building

Framework:: Venture

Project value:: £30 million

Sector:: Higher Education

SMEs engaged:: 85%

Local spend within 40 miles:: 75%

Local labour within 40 miles: 75%

We’ve enjoyed working with Wates over the last five years… and the reason for that is because what we’ve genuinely found is that there’s always openness, and there is honesty. Yes, at times, as with any project there are complications… but we have always managed to be very open and tried to have the same end-goal of delivering the project on-time and within budget.

Darren Vipond

Director of Campus Services, Teesside University

As part of Teesside University's £300 million Campus Masterplan, the Digital Life Building will be a cutting-edge facility for research, teaching, and learning in Computing, Engineering, and Digital Technologies.

The University wanted a building that embodies a bold vision, reflecting the ambitions of computing, engineering, and digital art students in the future. The design promotes inspiration, innovation, and collaboration, connecting disciplines through co-working spaces and biophilic design that integrates technology with nature.

Incorporating smart labs, digital art studios, a multi-functional lecture theatre, and events space, the building aims to be a catalyst for physical and digital collaboration and study, simulating an industry-quality digital studio experience for students, businesses, and visitors.

Following the successful delivery of Teesside University's National Horizons building and Cornell Quarter Student Accommodation, Wates was appointed by the university through the SCAPE Venture framework to carry out the work which is aimed to be completed by April 2025.

Internally, there is a large open entrance atrium space with a "floating" pod at the 2nd-floor level. This space connects the ground floor to the 750-seat flexible teaching area and the 'Digital Commons' (an open learning and collaboration space).

Additionally, there is a double-height Motion Capture/Recording studio space on the ground floor, with other digital lab spaces located on the upper floors. These include a robotics lab, a stop motion studio, a cyber security lab, gaming labs, and other general computer labs.

Externally, the building can be accessed through a "biophilic digital forest" space. This area will feature a mix of planting and lighting elements such as totems, bollards, and strip LEDs within the paving.

The project required changes within 10 weeks into RIBA3, necessitating a new planning submission and a restart of RIBA3. This caused a potential 18-week extension, including an 8-week design pause and a 10-week redesign. Some of the changes included: The Building increased in size by 38% - Planned construction period only increased 25%.

To ensure the success of the program, it needed to start some initial work before the design was finalised. A contract was signed for preparatory work before obtaining planning permission. The benefits of this approach include early agreement on costs, the ability to demonstrate value for money by working with cost manager G&T, an earlier start on site, and a completion date before April 2025.

BREEAM Outstanding and BNG of 11.92% are being targeted by, in part, improving biodiversity in other areas on campus.

Sustainability credentials

Low Embodied carbon neutral building design with a project target of 750kgCO2e/m²
BREEAM Outstanding building
Highly efficient building envelope with U Values of 0.1w/m²k to walls (compared to Building Regulation of 0.35w/m²k).
Air Permeability of 3m²/(h.m2)@50Pa.
Utilising PRISM offsite manufacturing facility
2D and 3D modules in corridors
Q-Flow delivery tracking